Changing the Future: Year One
by Creative Central
Summary: Hermione goes back in time from a year after the final battle, to her first year at Hogwarts. From there, she has to go through all 7 years again. In her first year, she befriends several students from all the houses, and with their help, puts into action a plan to change the future, hopefully for the better. Loosely follows book one plot. Manip!Dumbles and select Weasley bashing.
1. King's Cross and a Fight

AN: I don't own Harry Potter, and never will.

This story involves some OOC characters. The most OOC characters may be the Slytherins that I include in this, and perhaps Hermione. I am sorry if they are OOC, but I am a beginner at writing fanfiction with canon characters for Harry Potter.

This is a time travel story. It may not follow the timeline from any of the books, but Hermione's past does. The epilogue never happened, okay? It is a multi-genre story, and I am planning on it being a very long story. I plan on updating it at least once a month, and if I have the time, twice a month.

Also, I am still looking for a betareader for this, so if you are one, or if you know of one who might help, please leave a review/PM me. Advice is welcome, but please no flames (unless the flames give tips like the Slytherins are too nice, make them meaner, or something along those lines.) Other than those helpful flames, I will ignore the rest.

Please enjoy my story.

* * *

Hermione Granger, aged 19 years, yet again stood just outside of King's Cross Station, yet again saying good-bye to her parents, and promising to be good and write to them about everything that is going to happen. Yet again, she was heading off to Hogwarts as a first year. How is this possible, you ask? Magic, as always, is the very answer.

Six months ago, or, rather, in six years six months, Hermione Granger, along with three other ex-Hogwarts students, Terence Higgs of Slytherin, Cho Chang of Ravenclaw, and Oliver Rivers of Hufflepuff, had (would be) worked (working) together for several months in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, attempting to discover a form of time travel that would go back several years instead of several days or several hours. They had finally believed that they had figured out a way after several long months of conducting research, but the only thing that remained was to test it.

In the Wizarding World, even in the Department of Mysteries, there are very few ways to test something, especially something like this, and be certain that it worked. Hermione Granger, predicting that if it did work, their timeline would possibly be destroyed, and therefore they might not be conducting the research in the current time, because of possible alterations to the timeline, suggested they figure out what this was going to be used for first, either to change something, or to see if it were simply possible.

When they determined that it was to simply see if it were possible, the four of them made a pact. Based off of their calculations and what they had theorized, if something were to go into the past, the present would no longer exist. The four of them decided that at least one of them would use what they had discovered to go into the past; and possible try and change the present.

In the end, it was decided that Hermione Granger was to be the one who was to go into the past, being that they only had the ability to send one item, or person, in this case, into the past. Hermione was chosen to accomplish this because of her knowledge of events, and past proximity to the events, that had happened in the past. She had even volunteered for this job, knowing that if she were to fail, there would not be a way to get back to the current time. And so, the group had sent Hermione into the past.

Arriving in the past, Hermione realized instantly that she was back in her eleven year old body. Because of this, being in the past was proving to be more difficult than she had originally planned, being that she had not been expecting to be put into her body, but instead become just another person living in the past. It was hard for her to act as an eleven year. It was harder for her to pretend that she didn't know what she knows. But, Hermione was managing to do exactly that. She was not the brightest witch of her age for nothing.

Entering King's Cross after her parents had left, she quickly realized a problem with getting onto Platform 9 ¾. First year muggleborns were not supposed to know how to get onto the Platform. It was expected of them to find someone else, preferably an older student of Hogwarts, or a wizard family, who did know how to get onto the Platform, to tell them how. It was one of the many ways that the teachers started out with getting the younger students acquainted with the elder ones, to promote unity among the students. It rarely ended like this, usually it ended with muggleborn students meeting with other students that were also first year, traditionally half-bloods and blood traitors. Once in a while a muggleborn would meet up with an elder student, usually another muggleborn. Last time, it had ended rather well for her; she had met Neville Longbottom and his grandmother after several minutes of wandering around King's Cross worried that she would miss the train.

This time, however, Hermione did not wish to wander around until she met with them, although she had enjoyed Neville's company on the train ride to school, she wished to get directly onto the Platform, without attracting too much attention. So, pretending to be an innocent eleven year old alone at King's Cross, she began to wander around Platforms 9 and 10, waiting for some students and/or their families to walk by, and started listening in on other's conversations, determining that this would help her find other students.

The first few conversations she listened in on were not much of a help towards her. Most spoke of delayed trains and greetings, along with business and other such things. Finally, she found some people who would hopefully 'help' her.

"Aww… Mark, come on, it'd be fun." A boy passing by her was saying.

Hermione spun around with her cart to watch them. There were several boys and all were of the proper age to attend Hogwarts. She could not identify what house they were of; if they did attend Hogwarts, but she hoped that they were from Gryffindor. Or perhaps Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. As long as they weren't from Slytherin, they may be willing to 'help' her.

"No, Ade, it would not be funny!" another boy snapped back at the first one. This boy must be Mark, she realized, and the other boy Ade, which was most likely short for something. Studying them, she realized that she couldn't place them into any particular house. They all had either black or brown hair, apart from Ade, who was a blonde. She couldn't see their faces, being that they were facing away from her.

"I agree with Mark. It would not do to do _that_ here. We'd be in so much trouble, we'd lose points before the school year even started, and we'd get detentions." The eldest boy said. His voice sounded very familiar, but Hermione couldn't place it. She did realize, of course, that 8 years had passed between this time and the time that she had left.

Deciding that these boys would be okay to ask for information about how to get onto Platform 9 ¾ Hermione interrupted there conversation, all the while praying that they were Gryffindors.

"Excuse me, could you please tell me how to get onto Platform 9 and 3/4? The teacher who came to speak to me neglected to tell me how to find it." Hermione interjected into the elder boys' conversation. Too late, when they turned to face her, she realized who they were, and they weren't Gryffindors, like she had hoped for. Marcus Flint, Adrian Pucey, Terence Higgs, and a few other friends (?) of theirs, all Slytherins, as far as she could tell.

"What do you want with us?" One of the people she couldn't remember ever seeing before snapped. He had short, curly black hair, dark colored eyes, he was somewhat short, yet skinny.

"For you guys to tell me how to get onto the platform." Hermione replied. Oh shit was she screwed now. She realized that she could simply run off, and never speak to them again, but her Gryffindor side refused to let her back down. And, then she would most likely have to face them again at school, which would just make backing down even worse.

"And why should we tell you that?" Dark-haired Marcus Flint sneered. Oh, yeah. They all hated muggleborns in this time. Wasn't that just perfect? She just had to find a group of students that hated muggleborns. Especially ones like her; that stood up to them.

"Because it'd be something nice for you to do for someone else." Hermione answered. She was not going to back down to them, no matter how intimidating they were, or rather, are. They had most likely already marked her as a muggleborn and future Gryffindor by the way she was acting.

"What if I don't want to be nice to others?" Marcus Flint sneered, again. She was going to have to get used to this, she realized. Whilst in the future, this had stopped with the end of the war, back here it had not.

"Being nice to others will get you further in life than being mean." Hermione stated. Did Flint have blue eyes in her past as well? They reminded her of someone else's, and it was actually beginning to distract her, seeing those blue eyes with focus and anger in them.

"You're not going to leave us alone, are you?" The blonde haired Adrian Pucey asked, studying the young girl in front of him curiously. Hermione realized what he must of saw. A small girl with bushy hair and big front teeth, who was small enough that she probably couldn't do any damage to anything at all.

"No, no I'm not." Hermione replied, "Not until you guys tell me how to get onto the platform." She would hurt them if they insulted her, just to prove that she wasn't weak. And that was her Slytherin side speaking.

"Hm… I think I like this one. She's very daring, trying to argue with us. Pity she's a mudblood and a future Gryffindor." Terence Higgs said, smirking. Realizing that this was the boy who had sounded familiar to her, Hermione scowled at him, before deciding that the proper course of action ought to be to hit him, just as her Slytherin side was telling her to do.

And hit him she did. Only problem was, was that being that she was so small, she couldn't possibly hit him with her hands anywhere that would seriously hurt, namely, his face; so she went with the next best thing. She kicked him in the shins, which she had heard could be pretty damn painful. The reaction she got was almost instant. Terence shouted, and the other Slytherin boys jumped back, thinking that they would be next.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?" Terence groaned, trying to keep his balance as he stood on one foot, holding his other leg, which was apparently harder than it seemed.

"You called me a 'mudblood'. Now, I don't know what that means, but I'm going to assume that it was meant as an insult towards me. And I do not take nicely to being insulted. My name is Hermione Jean Granger, and that is what I wish to be called, not things like 'mudblood'. Let this be a warning to all of you, next time that any one of you calls me a 'mudblood' or any other derogatory term of the sorts, I will kick you. And next time, for you," Hermione said, now addressing Terence Higgs, "I will kick you where it hurts even worse than your leg. Do I make myself clear?"

Terence Higgs winced before replying; obviously he knew what she was referring to. Judging by the others reactions at taking a step back from her again, they understood as well.

"Yes." Terence finally replied, "Very clear. Can you not mention this at school?"

He placed his foot back down on the ground slowly, as though any sudden movements would provoke the first year girl. Which, Hermione realized, was a very smart move on her part to intimidate him, now he thought that she was going to harm him if he insulted her any further, which she would do, of course.

"Maybe I will and maybe I won't. It depends." Hermione stated. "Now, can one of you please tell me how to get onto Platform 9 ¾?" Hermione smiled patiently at the older boys.

"You have to run at the 3 barrier between Platforms 9 and 10, okay?" Terence informed her.

_Poor boy. _Hermione thought. _Got kicked by a first year, and a girl at that. He's just lost some of his dignity because of a girl._

"Thank you." Hermione walked away from the boys, and towards the barrier that Terence had told her of. Hermione ran through the barrier with her cart. She took her trunk off of it, and dragged her trunk onto the train. Finding an empty compartment, she packed away her trunk, and sat down, looking out the compartment's window.


	2. Discussions of Names and Society

AN: Hey, so this is chapter two of the story.

Thank you to all of those who reviewed. Starting after this chapter, updates will not be consistant, because I am starting school on this coming Tuesday, meaning that I will not have a chance to sit around and type everything up at one point in time (I haven't ever done that anyways). Hopefully, chaptet 3 will be up before next Sunday, because I am about half-way through that chapter.

Also, I have been working on writing out some extra detials about the Wizarding World for a separate story, they go into more detial about what is somewhat explained about the wizarding society in this chapter. If you guys are interested in reading it, I will post the extra information in a separate story.

Also, in case you are wondering, certain detials in this chapter will most likely come back up in later chapters. I won't tell you which ones, but they do have to do with part of a sub-plot in the story that I have.

I believe that is all,

Creative Central

* * *

Hermione sat in the compartment while looking out the window. She couldn't help but notice that Neville Longbottom had gotten onto the Platform with his grandmother, and had lost his toad. Oliver Rivers, who would, or rather, had helped her find a way into the past, was talking to his parents and siblings. And, of course, that Lee Jordan was proudly showing his pet spider to several other students.

It seemed all too strange to her, to be seeing her friends as children again, and know that they didn't know her. Being in the past was taking a lot of getting used to, especially now that she would be surrounded by more people than just her parents. She would have to guard her words very carefully.

Continuing to watch others out the window, Hermione noticed that the Slytherin boys had gotten onto the Platform, and had split up. Some of them seemed to be searching for something- or perhaps someone. Watching their behavior curiously, Hermione debated what they were doing. After a few minutes she determined that they were most likely looking for her, the first year muggleborn that had stood up to them.

The three of them eventually all disappeared from the Platform, getting onto the train, and Hermione was now back to watching the same things occur as in the past. However, her watching did not last long, seeing as the door to her compartment was roughly thrown open.

"She's here!" Adrian Pucey shouted back out into the corridor, before entering the compartment.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked.

"We have a proposition for you. Hopefully, you'll accept it." Terence Higgs had entered the compartment behind Adrian, and Marcus Flint followed him in.

"What's the proposition?" Hermione asked, curious now to hear what they had sort of a plan that they had to offer to her.

"We… well, not exactly want or need… I don't fully know how to explain it, or how to start." Adrian Pucey looked helplessly over at the other two Slytherin boys. The three boys had all taken seats across from Hermione.

"Well, we could start off with your names. It seems to me that you all know more about me than I know about you." Hermione was lying through her teeth, and she knew that, but they did not.

"Alright. I'm Adrian Pucey, and that guy you kicked is Terence Higgs. And, that there is Marcus Flint. He's had a rough time this summer, so just ignore anything insulting that he says." Adrian Pucey said, "And, of course, we know that you're Hermione Jean Granger."

"You don't have to call me Hermione Jean Granger. Jean is my middle name; most don't use it when addressing me." Hermione stated.

"Figured as much. Most people don't use their middle names, unless they have an absolutely horrible first name." Terence Higgs laughed.

"Wood's got a pretty funny first name. Doesn't use it at all. Just uses his middle name instead. I think it would be an improvement for him to use his first name." Adrian Pucey said, amusedly.

"Who's Wood?" Hermione asked, yet again feigning ignorance.

"Wood's a Gryffindor. He plays Quidditch, that's a Wizarding sport, to you, Hermione Granger. And his first name is pretty entertaining. It's Leontes. What kind of a name is that anyways?" Terence asked.

"Leontes is the name of the King of Sicilia in one of William Shakespeare's plays. The play is called 'A Winter's Tale.'" Hermione answered immediately and amusedly.

"Wait- you mean to say that Leontes is the name of a King?" The Slytherin boys stared at her, Adrian Pucey and Terence Higgs looked shocked.

"A fictional King," Hermione replied, "Not a real one."

"Who's William Shakespeare?" Terence Higgs asked.

"He's only the best play writer of all time. He wrote a lot of famous plays. Hamlet, A Winter's Tale, and, of course, his most famous, Romeo and Juliet. A lot of them were tragedies." Hermione answered.

"You find this 'Winter's Tale' Leontes thing amusing, don't you?" Terence asked.

"Of course I do. 'A Winter's Tale' is the first Shakespeare play that I ever read, and watched. Wood's parents most likely liked the play, could've been their favorite. It was my parents' favorite." Hermione added as an afterthought.

"What makes you say that they 'most likely liked the play', and that it 'could've been their favorite'?" Marcus Flint asked, curious about how Hermione Granger had come to read, and watch, a play that Wood was named after a King from. Both Terence and Adrian turned to look at Marcus Flint, seemingly surprised that he had spoken at all.

"Not many people name their children after people from Shakespeare's plays. I think the most common ones to be named after a character are named either 'Romeo' or 'Juliet', after the star-crossed lovers who killed themselves. It's partially because most of the other names are kind of strange." Hermione replied.

"Not many people name their children after characters in plays because the names are strange? How would you know this?" Adrian asked.

"I've read most of the plays, and I can openly say that I've never met someone else named Hermione." Hermione answered.

"You're named after a character in one of this Shakespeare's plays?" Terence seemed confused.

"Yes, ironically enough, I'm named after the Hermione that was married to King Leontes in "A Winter's Tale'." Hermione answered.

"Oh. That's weird. I'm just named after my great-great grandfather." Adrian stated.

"My parents just liked the name Terence." Terence added.

"I don't know where my parents got Marcus from. Could've been anywhere, knowing my mother." Marcus muttered so quietly that Hermione almost missed what he was saying. Adrian frowned slightly, studying his friend. Just then, the compartment door opened again.

"Hello. Do you mind if we join you? Everywhere else is pretty full." A blonde girl asked, watching the occupants of the compartment closely.

"Course not, Astoria, you know that we don't mind much. Only person here that might is Hermione Granger. And I don't think that she'll mind at all." Adrian stated happily.

The blonde girl, Astoria, looked over at Hermione for conformation that it was okay. Hermione smiled and nodded, that yes it was okay.

"My name's Astoria Greengrass." She said, entering the compartment, "This is Blaise Zabini," Astoria gestured towards the Italian boy, "and Theodore Nott." Brown haired Theodore Nott smiled at her.

"Hermione Granger's been telling us where Wood got his name from. Apparently it's from a play called 'A Winter's Tale' by William Shakespeare. She got her name from the same play." Terence informed them.

"Oh, so Leontes is from a play? I didn't know that. Suppose it makes since. Lady Wood loves her plays." Theodore Nott stated.

"Lady Wood?" Hermione studied them, "You have things like Ladies and Lords in the Wizarding World, too?"

"Yeah, we got them. Mind you, you have to be pretty high up on the social steps to be called a Lord or Lady by pretty much everyone." Adrian Pucey stated.

"The Woods are pretty high up then?" Hermione asked.

"Course they are. Have been for several centuries. Top step, they're on. Up there with families like the Malfoys, the Blacks, and the Prewetts." Blaise Zabini scoffed.

"Are any of your families on the 'top step'?" Hermione asked.

"Course not; else we wouldn't be caught dead talking with you, unless we were Wood, of course. Terence, Astoria, and I; our families are on the second step. The Notts, Zabinis, and Flints, their on the third. The top three steps are the hardest to get into, but it's still possible, only not for muggleborns." Adrian stated.

"With the way my mother gets money and such, we'll end up top step with a few years." Blaise Zabini shook his head. "Everyone says that my mother's exceptionally beautiful, which I suppose must be true, because people keep marrying her, despite everyone else who married her before them dying."

"Money's one of the only ways to change social standing in the Wizarding World. Other than marriage, of course. But there's few families that can marry whoever they want and _not_ change their social status. Those on the top step are the only ones. Only other option for not changing your social status for the worse is if you're already on the bottom. Then, since you cannot go down any lower, you can only get higher, so you can marry whoever you want, in theory. Doesn't usually happen, because very few higher up people are willing to marry lower people, no offense." Terence Higgs explained.

"But there are some, as you said that 'very few were willing'." Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, there are some. James Potter, who married Lily Evans, a muggleborn, is the only one I can think of currently. Mostly it's girls that marry others from lower families. And it usually ends with them being disowned." Theodore Nott answered.

"Who?" Hermione asked, curious to hear who had been disowned.

"Well, there was Andromeda Black, who married Ted Tonks, he was a muggleborn. Molly Prewett, who married Arthur Weasley, he is a blood traitor, although that didn't happen until after her brothers were killed. Eileen Prince was nearly disowned for marrying a muggle, but her parents didn't disown her because she was their only heir. There were quite a few others, I believe, but I can't remember them right now." Adrian answered.

"It's very rare for a person to be disowned, of either gender. It's just less common for guys. It was Muriel Prewett who disowned Molly Prewett. Not Molly Prewett's parents. The Blacks hate muggleborns, so there was no chance of Andromeda not being disowned. It's actually part of why it's easier for girls to change their social status than guys." Blaise Zabini contributed.

"What would happen if a girl was to marry into a lower family that was only a few steps down, though?" Hermione asked, generally curious now. She had never had a chance to learn all of this in the previous timeline, being that the Weasleys did not care for status, and Harry didn't know much either. And then later, she simply assumed that it would be gone, and that she would never have to deal with social status degradation again. How wrong she had been.

"Depends on whether or not her family approves. She may not be disowned. Of course, there is always the option that it would boost the family's status that she's marrying into. It would improve the family's states a little bit, but not a lot. Or it could be slightly different than that, like if Astoria here married one of the Weasley boys. While it may not improve the entire family's status, it would improve the status of the person that she marries, so long as she's not disowned, and her sister doesn't inherit everything, and she's named heir. The Greengrass family would lose their place on the second step, of course, by marrying a Weasley, unless her sister married someone on either the second or first step," Adrian started.

"Or, in certain cases, it would not affect the family that the girl was from originally, as with those only on the top step. If the girl was the last of her family's line, and heiress to everything that belongs to the family line, then the family that she marries into, as long as she is not disowned, which is highly unlikely if she is the last of the line, will be pulled up to the top step, once they are married." Marcus Flint spoke quietly. "It's the same way with males in the line, too. Currently, Draco Malfoy, Sirius Black, and Leontes Wood can marry whoever they wish, even a muggleborn or a muggle, and they won't lose their families' spot at the top, because they're the last of their line. There's a fairly good chance that it won't happen with two of those three though. Black's in Azkaban; and Malfoy's in an arranged marriage with Daphne Greengrass, Astoria's little sister. Wood's the only who might do it, but from what I can tell, he's been looking out for this little girl that turned up last year."

Hermione's fellow compartment occupants all looked towards Marcus as he spoke. Adrian's eyebrows furrowed together as though there were something wrong, but then seemed to shrug it off.

"Oh, yeah. Katie Bell, the one that we were teasing, and Wood attacked us for it." Terence said.

"This Wood person attacked you?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, McGonagall was pissed off at him for it, but of course, he got off of it easily. He explained what had happened, and little Katie Bell confirmed the story, and we got in trouble." Adrian spoke again.

"Who is Katie Bell?" Hermione asked. Pretending to not know anything of the Wizarding World was somewhat annoying, but if she could learn more about others, like through this way, it was worth it.

"Katie Bell's a second year Gryffindor. Her family's pureblooded, but it's only been around for about 5 generations. Not very high standing, either. 4th or 5th step if I'm thinking correctly." Terence Higgs provided.

"You know much about Hogwarts?" Marcus asked, suddenly, startling everyone else in the compartment. Adrian and Terence both looked at him strangely, as if they were wondering if what he had said had just actually been said.

"Only what I read in Hogwarts, A History and what was explained to me by the teacher. I don't know much other than that." Hermione replied, glancing towards the two other older boys, trying to figure out what had just happened. Every time Marcus spoke, they were acting weird, almost as if Marcus never spoke around others, unless it was to insult them. Considering that Marcus was a Slytherin, this was entirely possible.

Adrian was now frowning, his eyebrows furrowed together as he studied Marcus. He looked like he wanted to ask something, but kept glancing between Marcus and Hermione, as if trying to make a connection about what had just happened. Terence was also studying Marcus, also looking puzzled. Apparently, Adrian's reaction was just confusing him even more, as he looked entirely lost after looking at Adrian. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were exchanging looks of confusion, whilst Astoria Greengrass looked pleasantly pleased with this sudden development.

The compartment lapsed into silence for several minutes. Adrian continued to look in-between Hermione and Marcus, almost as if one of them would explain what had just happened. Terence just looked lost now, as if he had just walked in on the middle of the conversation and had no clue what was going on. Theodore and Blaise were both using some silent form of communication, and it appeared to just be making them even more confused. Astoria was beaming now, extremely pleased despite the others confusion.

All of a sudden, the door to the compartment was opened once again, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

"Uh…" Terence sat still for a couple of seconds, "Yeah. Sure." He stood up and left the compartment. When he reentered the compartment, he was carrying a bunch of candy.

After closing the door behind him, and closing the blinds that were on the door, Terence then turned around and asked, "What the heck just happened?"

He looked between the confused occupants of the compartment, the grinning Astoria, and Marcus Flint, who had found a sudden interest in his hands.

"I wish I knew, Ter, I wish I knew." Adrian replied, shaking his head.

"Um…" Hermione began, now wanting to ask the very thing that had started this whole conversation, and get away from the subject that had caused the silence. "What was the proposition that you guys wanted to ask me about again? I don't believe that you ever told me."


	3. A Deal Is Made incomplete

AN: So I'm going to answer some questions here that were asked in the reviews I received on from the previous chapters.

Q: What are the ages of the Slytherins?

A: I have Terence Higgs is the eldest at 17, almost 18, and he's a seventh year.

I screwed with Marcus Flint's and Adrian Pucey's ages a bit, seeing as Marcus Flint was a 6th year in the books, and Adrian Pucey was a at least a year above Harry, but no more than 3 years above him (according to wiki), but like I said, I did screw with their ages.

I made Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey both 5th years.

Astoria Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott are all the same age, at 11.

Q: Why would they be interested in a first year mudblood?

A: Seeing as it's a somewhat important point in the story, so I can't say just yet without ruining the story. But you'll see what's up with that eventually, I promise.

And, of course,

On the Greengrass sister subject, let me say whoops. I got the two sisters confused, but for the sake of this story, I'm going to continue to pretend that Astoria's the older sister, because of all that I currently have planned/written out.

And that's all for now. Sorry about the delay in updating the story, I've been fairly busy. I will also be updating this again once I have the second half of this chapter done. I've been skipping around a bit too much, but I almost have the Sorting scene done (it comes after this).

* * *

"What proposition?" Blaise asked, looking towards the older boys.

"I suppose we should start talking about that. We won't have very much time once we arrive at Hogwarts." Terence stated. He and Adrian exchanged looks.

"I wouldn't want to explain it at Hogwarts, it'd be too risky." Adrian added. "Dumbledore or one of those goody-goodies might overhear, and then it'd all be over."

"Why are you concerned about Dumbledore or someone else overhearing?" Hermione asked. In the other timeline, the only time that others had been concerned about others overhearing was when what they were doing was slightly illegal, or extremely dangerous.

"Well, if certain people overhear this, they'll go to Dumbledore." Terence Higgs answered.

"And Dumbledore's a manipulative –" Adrian started, but got interrupted.

"Ade, they're only first years, they don't swear." Marcus said loudly enough that they couldn't hear what Adrian had said. Adrian glared at him. This time none of the others seemed surprised by Marcus talking, and Hermione realized that Marcus cutting off Adrian like this must be somewhat normal for the Slytherin boys.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," Adrian began again, still glaring at Marcus, "Dumbledore's a very manipulative man. He's got almost the entire Wizarding World believing every little thing he says."

"Some of the families are like ours are, they can tell that Dumbledore's lying, only problem is that there are more of the other families than there are of ours." Terence added before Hermione could ask what Adrian meant by almost the entire.

"Dumbledore's, as some people put it, 'out to get those of us whose families don't give him our entire undivided loyalty'." Theodore said, also contributing to the conversation.

"What does he do to those who don't give him their 'undivided loyalty'?" Hermione asked. Now this was a side to the story that she hadn't heard before. Being with the Weasleys, she had only ever had heard the 'good side' of the war, she had never heard the 'bad side'.

"Usually nothing, not unless he wants to teach us a lesson. Last time he did something wasn't all that long ago, though. Old Lord Lestrange, whose two sons are in Azkaban, was found dead in his family home. Turns out he had been poisoned." Astoria spoke, "His house elf got all the blame, of course, but we all knew better. It was one of Dumbledore's worse warnings. Sure, Lord Lestrange's sons did kill, but he took no part in it, claimed he was too old, which was the truth."

"Dumbledore is never going to own up to breaking the law, though. Lord Lestrange was higher up than he was, and everyone knows it. Or, at least, those from the Wizarding World do. If he did own up to even half the things he's done, he'd end up in Azkaban." Terence added, "Azkaban's a Wizarding prison. Worst of them all, Azkaban is. Or, worse, he'd get the Kiss."

"A Kiss? What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"A Dementor's Kiss is the worst punishment you could ever get by breaking the law. A Dementor is a magical creature, one of the worst in the world. It takes out all of your happy memories, leaving you only with bad ones. A Kiss is when they suck out your soul." Adrian explained.

"What we're doing could possibly end up with us in Azkaban or dead, or worst of all, Kissed." Terence added, to Hermione's benefit about their plan.

"What is it that you want with me, then? What could an eleven year old do to help you out?" Hermione asked.

"What we want you to do is help us get rid of Dumbledore, or at least expose his lies." Adrian stated, leaning forward in his seat.

"Get rid of him or expose his lies?" Hermione asked, "How do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, it's really complicated, the plan is, and the adults – our parents, and along with some others – are helping us out, too. They'll be doing all the more dangerous stuff, of course. We're just responsible for getting information about what goes on in Hogwarts for Dumbledore. We just need help getting information on Dumbledore. Being Slytherins, we're in no position to get the some of the information that is needed. We would need a Gryffindor in order to get the information." Terence spoke quickly.

"And you're assuming that I'll be a Gryffindor?" Hermione asked.

"Course we are." Adrian replied, "Like Terence said, you're a muggleborn – it means that your parents are muggles, it's not derogatory in any way, I promise – and a future Gryffindor."

Hermione spoke, "I could be a future Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff or Slytherin for all you know."

"Even a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw would be helpful, but we're quite certain that you'll end up in Gryffindor. And as for Slytherin," Terence hesitated, "Well, as for Slytherin, most students are either pureblooded or half-blooded. There hasn't been a muggleborn in Slytherin since the first days of Hogwarts. If there ever was one, even then."


End file.
